The Artful Evangelical Dodger

When he was nominated/appointed/elevated or however one gets to be Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby was hailed as coming from the evangelical wing of the Church. The term obviously means something different in the Church of England than its meaning in the USA. Here, "Evangelical" typically means more than praying out loud and raising your arms to the sky during worship. It means someone who goes out and spreads the Gospel to unbelievers. The Episcopal church differs from the CofE in this case in that TEc does not even pretend to have an "evangelical wing".

The following article adds to the list of non-evangelical comments and behaviors we have seen from this AofC, (h/t Ancient Briton)

The Archbishop faced a number of “challenging” questions from pupils at the Church of England school (St Alban’s Academy in Highgate), where 80 per cent of its pupils are Muslim.

Answering a pupil who asked whether he would encourage him to convert from Islam to Christianity, the Archbishop said: “I am not going to put pressure on you, and I wouldn’t expect you to put pressure on me.” (BirminghamMail)

I would call that an artful dodge if ever I saw one. It certainly qualifies as an un-evangelical response to the poor unbelieving child.

I am reminded of another artful dodger,

"The Artful Dodger found the young, desperate, starving, naïve Oliver Twist and brought him home to the manipulative Fagin to begin a life of crime. Yes, the artful Dodger helps to train Oliver to become a pickpocket and then betrays him in the end." (From the Education Portal)

Funny hats and artful dodging seem to go together.

It has the makings of a great musical.

++Welby to Muslim student:

   Consider yourself at home.
   Consider yourself  one of the family.
   We've taken to you so strong,
   It's clear we're going to get along.
   Consider yourself well in.
   Consider yourself part of the furniture.
   There isn't a lot to spare.
   Who cares? Whatever we got we share!
 
   If it should chance to be
   We should see
   Some harder days,
   Headless days,
   Why grouse?
   Always a chance we'll meet
   Somebody to foot the bill,
   Then the drinks are on the house!
   Consider yourself our mate.
   We don't want to have no fuss,
   For after some consideration, we can state
   Consider yourself
   One of us!
 
   Nobody tries to be lah-di-dah and uppity.
   There a cup o'tea for all.
   Only it's wise to be handy wiv' an excuse or two
   When the Lord comes to call!